The burgeoning space industry and the technologies society increasingly relies on – electric grids, aviation and telecommunications – are all vulnerable to the same threat: space weather. Space ...

A giant solar sail recently unfurled by Nasa has been spotted “tumbling” through space. Astronomers captured the 80-square-metre object, which was unfurled last week, appearing to fluctuate in ...

Engineers in California pressed a button on Tuesday that unfurled the sails on a satellite that can be steered around Earth, advancing long-held hopes for an inexhaustible form of spaceflight and ...

To get somewhere in space, you'll need engines and fuel, but maybe that won't be the case for much longer. The Planetary Society has just reached a critical milestone in the development of its solar ...

NASA plans to build larger solar sails that can generate more thrust. A new unique composite carbon fiber booms, the ACS3 system has the potential to support sails as large as 2,000 square meters, or ...

The Planetary Society’s LightSail 2 is a winner of the 2024 Gizmodo Science Fair for testing the feasibility of using photons from the Sun as a form of propulsion for satellites. Can solar sailing ...

Solar sailing has moved from science fiction concept to working hardware, and now a new generation of entrepreneurs wants to turn that gentle push of sunlight into a commercial engine. Instead of ...

Alfredo has a PhD in Astrophysics and a Master's in Quantum Fields and Fundamental Forces from Imperial College London. Alfredo has a PhD in Astrophysics and a Master's in Quantum Fields and ...

We need to make bigger solar sails from materials that can take high temperatures. Taking high temperatures means the solar sails could fly closer to the sun. If we got four times closer to the sun ...

NASA has launched the latest attempt to test solar sail propulsion technology. The ACS3’s solar sail is made of a reflective polymer and is held by a boom made of carbon fiber composite material.

Despite a failed first attempt, NASA deployed its pioneering solar sail system, which will harness energy from the Sun to propel itself forward through space. The Advanced Composite Solar Sail System ...